Share Our Story: By Hand

Kia ora! Thank you again to everyone who supported our By Hand Boosted campaign.

Although the campaign has now officially closed, this is really just the beginning of the next chapter for the film.

We’ll continue sharing updates about future screenings, film festival news, behind-the-scenes stories, media coverage, and the ongoing journey of By Hand through my website, The Story Studio.

You can follow the journey here:

The Story Studio

Thank you for helping us bring Greg and Ali Lang’s story into the world. We’re excited to keep sharing where the film travels next.

Ngā mihi nui,
Jane Ross

We’ve now officially closed our Boosted campaign for By Hand and we wanted to say one final and heartfelt thank you to every single person who donated, shared, encouraged, and supported us along the way.

Your generosity has helped us reach our target and will make a significant difference as we move into the next stage of the film’s journey, including future screenings and film festival submissions.

We have been genuinely overwhelmed by the response to this film and by the support shown for Greg and Ali Lang’s story. Thank you for believing in the importance of local stories, traditional craftsmanship, and community storytelling.

We also wanted to share this lovely RNZ Morning Report feature by Paris Ibell about the love story behind By Hand. It was a real privilege to speak with RNZ and to see the story continue to resonate with people beyond the Wairarapa.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us. We truly could not have done it without you.

RNZ article:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/560271/the-love-story-behind-nz-s-only-wheelwright

Today I recorded a new episode of Film Talks On Air with filmmaker and By Hand editor Cameron Madams, reflecting on the journey of By Hand two weeks on from our special screening at the Wairarapa Events Centre in Carterton.

In this episode, Cameron and I talk about what happens when a film meets an audience for the first time, and how those reactions can shape the final stage of the edit. We discuss the emotional and creative decisions behind refining a story right at the point where structure meets feeling.

This conversation became something deeper than just a discussion about filmmaking. It’s about collaboration, trust, storytelling, and the quiet but crucial work of finishing a film both technically and emotionally.

As my Boosted campaign enters its final stretch, this episode feels like an important reflection on why these conversations matter, and why preserving and sharing stories from New Zealand’s screen industry is something I care deeply about continuing through Film Talks On Air.

Thank you to everyone who has supported, shared, donated, or encouraged this campaign so far. We’re getting close now.

Have a listen: https://www.arrowfm.co.nz/programmes/show/191/film-talks-on-air/

Very proud to hear wheelwright Greg Lang speaking about our film By Hand on RNZ Morning Report today, while also sharing insight into the incredible work that Greg and Ali do preserving the heritage of wheelwrighting.

Have a listen. 

P.S. Three Days left on our Boosted campaign. Thank you so much for your donation and for being part of this journey. Please share our campaign with anyone who you think would be interested in our film, too:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2019034636/wairarapa-couple-preserving-wheelwrighting-heritage
 

We have had wonderful support from local and national press. Check out our first story published in the Wairarapa Midweek and The Post online. 

https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360974417/hand-crafting-local-story-world

An update from the By Hand journey.

We are currently sitting at 62% of our $4,000 all-or-nothing Boosted goal, and I wanted to sincerely thank everyone who has donated, shared, encouraged, and followed this project so far. Every contribution has helped us move closer to bringing this film into the world.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about today is how we chose to tell this story.

There are many different modes of documentary storytelling. Some documentaries are purely observational; the classic “fly on the wall” approach where the filmmaker never intervenes. Others are expository, built around narration, interviews, and archival material. Some are poetic, focusing on tone, rhythm, imagery, and emotional expression over strict linear storytelling.

With By Hand, I never wanted to make a “how-to” film or a conventional biography.

I wanted audiences to experience Greg and Ali’s world through rhythm, process, atmosphere, craft, and collaboration. I wanted viewers to sit beside the steam, the timber, the fire, the wheel rim glowing over the flames. I wanted you to observe the making of a wheel; milling, steaming, bending, shaping, and tiring, while also hearing Greg and Ali reflect on decades of working slowly and closely together.

The film became its own hybrid blend of poetic, observational, and participatory documentary storytelling.

It’s poetic in its focus on tone, texture, montage, movement, and artistic expression.

It’s observational in the way we quietly witness the wheel-making process unfold.

And it’s participatory because, although you never see or hear me, I’m sitting beside the camera asking questions, guiding the conversations, shaping the emotional architecture of the story alongside Greg and Ali.

When you see me in photographs holding a clipboard, those notes were helping shape the three-act structure of the film:

• Origins
• Love story
• Legacy

I wanted the interview questions, imagery, and workshop sequences to all feed into those movements of the story.

There’s also a parallel story running throughout the film; not only hearing Greg and Ali talk about their craft and partnership, but simultaneously observing them making the wheel together in present time. Their relationship exists inside the process itself.

As we move toward completing this campaign, we’re also thinking about the future life of By Hand; including future screenings, festival submissions, regional, national, and international distribution opportunities.

Every screening, festival entry, and distribution pathway comes with costs, and every donation helps us continue that journey.

If you would like to help us reach our goal and continue sharing this story with audiences, we would love you to be part of that next chapter with us.

Thank you for being part of the journey so far.

Kia ora everyone,

I wanted to share a very special part of the journey behind this film.

In January 2025, while visiting my friends Tina and Peter and their family in Napier, Hawke’s Bay, I walked into their home and was greeted by the sound of their son Luca playing guitar. It was bluesy, country-tinged, full of feeling, and it immediately stayed with me.

In that moment I had a clear sense of the film’s world. The music felt like it already belonged to the landscape of Gladstone, to the railway hub, to the rural textures and rusted beauty at the heart of the story.

I asked Luca if he might be open to recording some music with me for the film and to my absolute delight he said "yes".

In February 2025 Luca came down to stay and we spent time recording at Arrow FM in Radio House in Masterton. Michael Wilson, the station manager, generously supported us in the studio as we explored different guitar styles, moods, and tempos. It was a deeply creative and memorable time.

As a beautiful gesture, Michael signed Luca’s guitar, a keepsake that will stay with him always.

The music that has emerged from this collaboration now forms a core part of the film’s original score, composed and shaped by William Phillipson. It carries the emotional landscape of the story in a way I could never have planned. It simply arrived through connection, place, and generosity.

I’m incredibly grateful to Luca, Tina, Peter, Michael, and William for being part of this journey.

Below are some images from the studio.

Thank you for continuing to support this film as it moves closer to completion.

Ngā mihi nui
Jane
 

Kia ora everyone,

Thank you very much for everyone who has made a donation. Your support and generosity means a lot to me.  

Here are some images I captured on one of my first site visits to The Wheelwright Hub in 2024. It's alway great to see the type of restoration work that that Ali and Greg work on at the Hub in Gladstone, Aotearoa.